Governor Newsom Wants To Fast Track Controversial Water Project: Golden State Salmon Association Responds
Governor Gavin Newsom issues a press release that would accelerate the controversial Delta Tunnel project that conservation and environmental groups argue would further decimate already fragile salmon runs in Central Valley rivers.
First up, here’s the Governor’s office’s release:
What you need to know: Governor Newsom today, as part of the May Revise, is announcing a significant proposal to fast-track infrastructure improvements to the State Water Project — saving the state billions of dollars and years of delay, and helping deliver critical water to users throughout the state.
SACRAMENTO — Governor Newsom today announced, as part of his May Revise, a significant proposal to streamline one of California’s most important water management and climate adaptation projects, the Delta Conveyance Project, advancing much-needed and long-overdue improvements to the State Water Project.
“For too long, attempts to modernize our critical water infrastructure have stalled in endless red tape, burdened with unnecessary delay. We’re done with barriers — our state needs to complete this project as soon as possible, so that we can better store and manage water to prepare for a hotter, drier future. Let’s get this built.”
Governor Gavin Newsom
A project Californians depend on
No piece of infrastructure is more fundamental to California’s water supply and economic success than the State Water Project. It captures, moves, and stores water used by 27 million people and 750,000 acres of farmland. If the service area of the State Water Project were its own country, its economy would rank eighth largest in the world, generating $2.3 trillion in goods and services annually.
In other words, California depends upon State Water Project deliveries. Abandoning or neglecting investments in this vital water system would put extraordinary financial pressure on ratepayers, including nearly 8 million people living in disadvantaged communities, to replace this water with more expensive, less reliable options.
Preparing California’s water infrastructure
Over the last few decades, the California climate has warmed, with the effects felt strongly in water resources. The state has already experienced a marked increase in the variability of precipitation, with wild swings from drought to flood.
Most major water systems — including the State Water Project — were built for a more predictable bygone pattern of precipitation and are not equipped for the stronger storms, deeper droughts, and abrupt swings driven by climate change. The system simply cannot capture the type of big flows now becoming more common, and that must change.
Without action, the ability of the State Water Project to reliably deliver water to homes, farms and businesses will decline.
Protecting California’s water supply
California is expected to lose 10% of its water supply due to hotter and drier conditions, threatening the water supply for millions of Californians — and the reliability of the State Water Project could be reduced as much as 23 percent. Extreme weather whiplash will result in more intense swings between droughts and floods – California’s 60-year-old water infrastructure is not built for these climate impacts.
The Delta Conveyance Project will help offset and recover these future climate-driven water losses, and yet, it has been plagued by delays and red tape.
The Delta Conveyance Project would expand the state’s ability to improve water supply reliability, while also maintaining fishery and water quality protections. During atmospheric rivers last year, the Delta Conveyance Project could have captured enough water for 9.8 million people’s yearly usage.
Removing unnecessary red tape
Governor Newsom first announced his commitment to the project during his first State of the State, modernizing the previous administration’s plans to address seismic and reliability issues and ensure that this critical piece of infrastructure could be built quickly and without delay. The Governor has advanced efforts to move the DCP forward, including certifying a final environmental impact report in December 2023 and securing financial support from water agencies throughout the state serving a majority of Californians. And while the project has received some necessary permits, its path forward is burdened by complicated regulatory frameworks and bureaucratic delays. Today, the Governor is proposing to streamline and strengthen the project’s path forward, to protect the state’s water supply for future generations.
The importance of protecting the reliability of the State Water Project is too great to allow the Delta Conveyance Project to be mired by unnecessary and extensive delays.
The Governor’s proposal would streamline the project by:
- Simplifying permitting. The proposal would simplify permitting for the project by eliminating certain deadlines from existing State Water Project water rights permits — recognizing that the State Water Project should continue serving Californians’ water needs indefinitely. The proposal would also strengthen enforcement of the Water Board’s existing rules for permit protests.
- Confirming funding authority. The proposal confirms that the Department of Water Resources has the authority to issue bonds for the cost of the DCP, to be repaid by participating public water agencies.
- Preventing unnecessary litigation delays. The proposal narrows and streamlines judicial review of future challenges to the Delta Conveyance Project, building on models that have served other large public works projects.
- Supporting construction. The proposal streamlines the authority to acquire land, supporting ultimate construction of the Delta Conveyance Project.
Building water infrastructure is a key part of the Governor’s build more, faster agenda delivering infrastructure upgrades and thousands of jobs across the state.
Golden State Salmon Association executive director Scott Artis had this to say about the latest development:
“The Governor’s proposal is an attack on the salmon fishing industry and the state’s biggest rivers. Commercial salmon fishing has been shut down for three straight years because of crashing salmon runs. Now the Governor is proposing to slash protections to build the biggest salmon-killing project in the state.
Climate change is making our state hotter and drier. Spending $20 billion on the Delta tunnel for climate resilience is like building more horse drawn buggies to make transportation more climate friendly. Smart water agencies know that there’s a far better source of abundant climate-smart water supply — water recycling, water use efficiency, stormwater capture, groundwater storage, and more.
All of Central Valley agriculture decided years ago that this project was not worth the astronomical cost. The Governor and Big Ag are hoping they can sucker Southern California and Silicon Valley ratepayers into paying for this boondoggle.
At the end of the day, this proposal is a nail in the coffin of California’s once mighty salmon runs, a stake in the heart of the Delta, and a raid on the pocketbooks of the people of Southern California and Silicon Valley.”
–Scott Artis, executive director, Golden State Salmon Association
